Today, I basically caused a lab evacuation.
I walked by the simple distillation that was going on. The heat was supposed to be turned off at 115 degrees Celsius. It was 112, and I thought it would only take a minute or two, so I stood by watching the thermometer. The acid suddenly started to foam and rise. I glanced at the thermometer again, and it was 120. It had shot up. The liquid suddenly started to overflow from the gaps that were there because it wasn’t attached correctly. It began to pour into the heating mantle and heat up more. The acid went up in smokes, and I inhaled quite a bit of it.
Through the smoke, I struggled to close the heat, and, in my haste, I turned the knob the wrong way, turning the heat up. While coughing and inhaling, I turned the heat off and turned around to find two guys staring at the smoke with wide eyes. I told them to call the TA, and the guy started to yell. Being the idiot I was, I still hadn’t moved away from the acidic smoke until the TA rushed over to tell everyone to back away and evacuate the lab.
We went outside for 10 minutes while they had to fan out the lab. I’m not a bad student in the laboratory, but this was officially the worst lab I ever had.
Now, I think I’m afraid to go back. To be honest, all I want is to pass the class. At the end of class, I went to the TA to apologize. I figured that would keep me on the humble side and sort of give her the hint that I was taking responsibility for that mistake.
I later remembered my lab partner and I had a conversation 30 minutes before the mishap on whether we should fix the gaps. We tried and were unable to, and I remember my words being “leave it and hope for the best.” Those seven words caused me to inhale acid 30 minutes later. From now on, I know I’ll be more careful. It was humiliating enough the first time around.